My Sanctuary Now
by RedSeraph7
Summary: Sephiroth centric post DoC, Clotif, Yuffitine. Sephiroth wakes up in Midgar after being defeated by Cloud for the umpteenth time, but Jenova is absent. What to do now?
1. Chapter 1

My Sanctuary Now

"…my sanctuary, my sanctuary now;

Where fears and lies melt away… what's left of me now?"

_ "Again? You think he will help? Alright." _

Cloud Strife woke with a start.

"Aeris?" He whispered. Had it been Aeris? Cloud knew it wasn't really his fault that he dreamt about the flower girl, but he felt guilty. It wasn't fair to Tifa. Cloud rubbed his eyes and slowly rolled on to his side, to look at the clock. "Four…," he muttered. His wife stirred and touched his shoulder.

"Cloud, what is it?"

"Nothing Tifa, just a dream; let's go back to sleep." She looked slightly concerned, but relaxed in her husband's embrace.

"Goodnight Cloud."

In the heart of Midgar, an old truck rumbled past a narrow alley. Dirty water from the evening rain flew from the wheels and struck a man, lying in the alley, on the face. He groaned as he came to, blinking the water from his eyes. _What? How did I get here?_ He wondered. The man slowly raised a long fingered hand up to his face and brushed the water from his pale green eyes. The movement hurt. _What doesn't hurt? I haven't ached this bad since…_

"Cloud." His breath came out as a hiss. Now he remembered. "I _hate _temporary amnesia," Sephiroth growled. _Mother usually pulls me out of it… Mother? MOTHER!_

There was no answer. He swore softly. _Well, at least it puts off being chewed out; I barely lasted ten minutes… Stupid clones. _Sephiroth rolled carefully onto his side and began to inspect his wounds. He was surprised to find the Omni-slash gashes were mostly healed. _SOLDIER healing isn't that strong, I was dying, I did die… _Something _brought me back then; not Mother? Where could she be…?_ He ran his fingers over the wounds gently. The deepest one, right in the middle of his stomach, was still slightly raw. As he shifted something soft bumped into the side of his head and a black feather floated down in front of him. _Wing's still here? Small wonder… _Sephiroth tried to stretch his wing around, but was stopped half way by blinding pain. "Broken?" _Great. _Bracing against the alley wall, Sephiroth carefully tried to stand. He leaned there and took a few deep breaths. _No materia? No healing magic… _He sighed and held the wing out as straight as he could before pulling it back into his shoulder. #&$_! Bad idea, very bad! _He fell back to the ground in pain. _Not thinking too clearly. _

After lying in the alley for a while longer, Sephiroth staggered out into the street. _Central Midgar; ok. _His old apartment building was on the outskirts, near Edge. The sky was fairly dark and cloudy, but not quite dark enough for the middle of the night. Sephiroth guessed it was sometime in the early morning. _I wonder if there are any buses running. _Not seeing much traffic on the streets yet, Sephiroth 'borrowed' a bicycle he found chained to a tree.

By the time his apartment building came into view, the sky was starting to lighten up and Sephiroth had had enough. The Omni-slash wounds were stinging fiercely and his stomach gash had begun to bleed. Sephiroth tossed the bike against the nearest building and approached the back door of the apartment offices.

"Hey you! What're you doing there?" Sephiroth stopped and looked behind him. One of Midgar's night policemen was standing on the corner. The man walked over, waving his nightstick threateningly. Sephiroth smirked. He was reminded of that fool Turk, Reno.

"Oh officer, I'm so glad to see you. I need to get in and see Mr. Hoshi." Sephiroth hoped he looked desperate enough. He offered the policeman the hand he had been keeping over his stomach and pretended to look shocked when it was bloody.

"Oh yer hurt! Let me help ya…" The officer approached and when he bent over to examine him, Sephiroth knocked him out. _That was easy._ He took the policeman's keys from his belt and kicked the nightstick across the street into a gutter. One of the cardkeys was an override for the outdoor locks on the buildings in the district. _Useful. _Sephiroth swiped the cardkey across the panel on Mr. Hoshi's door. It beeped and Sephiroth pushed the door open and let himself in.

Half of the office floor had been converted into a living area, and there was a plush leather couch in the corner. Sephiroth glanced at a clock on the desk which read 5:32am. _Mr. Hoshi didn't used to open the office until around eight. I could use some rest. _He went into the bathroom and washed his face and wounds, brushed out his hair, and then retired to the couch. _Heh, won't he be surprised…_


	2. Chapter 2

The door creaked open and Sephiroth woke up. He opened one eye and saw Mr. Hoshi sitting down at his desk. Sephiroth smirked and pretended to be asleep again. His landlord started to go through some papers, muttering to himself all the while. A few minutes later the phone rang.

"Yes, I'm quite alright. Why wouldn't I be? A break in?" Sephiroth listened with interest. _Talking about me? _Mr. Hoshi looked around the room. "No, I don't think anything was taken. They _did_ break in, you say? I don't see any signs of—" The phone clattered to the desk. Sephiroth rolled over and looked at Mr. Hoshi, who had started making strangled noises.

"Good morning Mr. Hoshi, I trust you've been well." His old landlord didn't answer but moved slowly back towards the phone. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Just pick it up and tell them your safe was broken into." Mr. Hoshi's eyes flicked over to his safe in the corner. It was still shut and locked. He looked back at Sephiroth cautiously. "I haven't broken or taken anything. Just do as I say and no one will be hurt." Mr. Hoshi picked up the phone again.

"No inspector, I just noticed my safe has been broken into. Yes, yes, everything is gone. No, nothing else was damaged. Thank you. Goodbye." He hung up. "S..s..s..eph…"

"Sephiroth?" Sephiroth supplied. Mr. Hoshi gulped. "I'm in no condition to hurt you Mr. Hoshi." He pulled his trench coat open, exposing his scored flesh. Mr. Hoshi looked surprised, but remained silent and moved no closer. _I suppose I have the reputation of being invincible... _"I came back to Midgar and need living arrangements. Tell me, is my old apartment still open?" Mr. Hoshi sighed and seemed to collect his wits.

"Yes, General Sir. I've kept it empty for you since you left."

"I'm hardly a general anymore Mr. Hoshi, but thank you. What about my personal effects and storage?" Seeing the former general relaxed calmed the little man somewhat, and he continued:

"I have three boxes of your personal things Sir, but I'm afraid Shin-ra has your storage items." It was Sephiroth's turn to sigh. He rubbed his nose bridge.

"Well I guess that can't be helped. Will you bring my boxes down please?"

"Right away Sir!"

Mr. Hoshi scurried over to the stairs and disappeared. _I hope there's a Cure materia in one of those boxes. I'd hate to have a scar and I'm _not _going to any doctor of Hojo's. _Sephiroth wondered where Masamune was. _Let's see, how did I get it last time? _He hated trying to remember the last fight with Cloud. It was strangely foggy and mixed with Kadaj's memories as well. Sephiroth sat up, put his arms in the air and concentrated. _Masamune, come to me. _With a rush of greenish light the long sword appeared in his hands. Sephiroth smiled. At that moment, Mr. Hoshi came down the stairs. He yelped and fell on his face. Sephiroth laughed.

"I said you were safe Mr. Hoshi; here, let me help you with those." He tucked Masamune in his belt and carefully rose to help his landlord with the boxes.

Sephiroth was pleased. The three boxes yielded quite a few things including, a few pair of clothes, formal and informal, toiletries, a few books, weapons and armor, and most importantly, materia. The materia case was lying on the bottom of the second box. Sephiroth lifted it out and opened it. He looked slightly exasperated.

"What's wrong Sir?"

"Nothing's wrong Mr. Hoshi, they've just been breeding again."

"Breeding Sir?"

"Well, multiplying might be a better word; mastered materia create more un-mastered materia over time."

"Oh."

Sephiroth collected the 'baby' materia and put them aside. Then he smiled and pulled out his favorite materia, the fire materia. It was a dark green sphere, perhaps an inch and a half in diameter. Sephiroth attached it to Masamune's hilt. _For later use… Now, where is my Cure materia? I thought it was in here. _After a moment, Sephiroth found the light green materia attached to an armband. It came off with a click and he held it up and concentrated on the spell.

"Curaga."

Warm green light came off the materia and covered the wounds on Sephiroth's torso. He checked them after the spell dissipated; the gashes were gone, except for the largest. _Try again… _ "Cure." Now the Omni-slash wound closed, but it left a four inch silver scar, that ran across the middle of his abs. "&#." _Would it have scarred if I'd used the stronger spell again? Maybe it's because Cloud's run me through so many times, or the sword's magic…? _It didn't matter. _My coat will probably cover it anyway…_ "Speaking of which…"

"I'm sorry Sir?"

"Nothing Mr. Hoshi, just thinking aloud."

Mr. Hoshi seemed a bit more nervous now that Sephiroth had all his weapons, and full health. He had sat down on the couch and was watched Sephiroth cautiously again. Sephiroth went through the clothing that Mr. Hoshi had saved and found his spare trench coat. He put it on and was very satisfied when the scar wasn't visible at all. But what was better was _my spare wallet. _He found it in the concealed pocket of the black coat, and inside was several thousand Gil. Sephiroth pulled out a thousand and put it on his landlord's desk. "I think that should cover the apartment for awhile; keys?" Mr. Hoshi silently handed him the keys and Sephiroth took the boxes and went upstairs. Mr. Hoshi collapsed on the couch as soon as Sephiroth left the room.

"What a morning…" He did, however, take the Gil from the desk after a moment.


End file.
